On Sep 4, 10:49 pm, Charles Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Sep 4, 2008, at 9:44 PM, lrbarrios wrote:
>
> Unplug the USB Drive!, Do a 'PRAM Reset!, power on, and let the
> system find the internal system to boot from.[It will, may take a
> while, but it will find a mounted partition with 9.x to boot from (if
> there is one available)].
>
> Chuck D.
These are all great suggestions. Thanks. Unfortunately, I've tried
alot of them. I suppose it's time for the LONG version of the 'how I
got here' story.
Some of you may recognize the beginning of this story as I've posted
some elements of it before. I have 3 recently acquired iMac G3's:
Revision A, Bondi, 333Mhz (upgraded, apparently), 64MB, 6GB, OS 9.2.2
Revision A, Blueberry, 333Mhz (upgraded, apparently), 192MB, 6GB, OS
9.2.2
Summer 2001, Graphite, 600Mhz, 256MB, 40GB, OS X 4.1
I purchased these machines with fresh installs of their OSes. I do
not have install disks (yet). I wanted to make backups of the systems
before I started changing too many things and before I put them
online. I've got SuperDuper!, an Apricorn IDE to USB adapter, and a
10GB 3.5" IDE drive. Hooked the drive up to the Graphite (OS X).
Used Disk Utility to create partitions on the 10GB drive for each of
the iMacs with a fourth partition just for 'extra'. I gave the
partitions names according to what they were going to ultimately
contain (i.e. Bondi, Blueberry, Graphite, and Misc). I formatted them
as OS X Extended (Journaled), with the OS 9 Drivers and zeroed the
drive. Based on the sizes of these fresh installs, the partitions
wouldn't have to be large. Another list member had mentioned
partitioning to minimize waste. I think he said something about there
being no point wasting 200GB of space for a 40GB backup. Made sense.
The sizes of the partitions are as follows.
Bondi = 512MB
Blueberry = 512MB
Graphite = 2.5GB
Misc = 6.5GB
Now that the stage was set, here's what I did to screw up my Macs.
With the drive still attached to the Graphite iMac, I used SuperDuper!
to make a full backup to the Graphite partition. Worked great.
Ejected the SuperDuper! CD. Ejected one partition (there were 4 of
them on the desktop) and the rest were automatically removed. I moved
the external drive rig over to the Bondi iMac, booted it up and see
all partitions on the desktop. Inserted the SuperDuper! CD.
Apparently it won't run on 9.2.2 and therefore won't install. Still
wanting a backup of this system, I dragged the 'myDrive' icon which
represents the internal drive onto the Bondi partition on the external
drive. Everything copied over fine. Opened the Bondi partition and
saw that a folder called 'myDrive' had been created inside the
partition. Opened the myDrive folder and dragged everything out of it
back to the root of the Bondi partition. I can't swear to this, but
I'm pretty sure I opened the System Folder to 'bless' it. Nothing
seemed to change. I don't remember the icon for the System Folder
looking any different/special.
At this point, I did something that everyone says couldn't/shouldn't
be done. I just wanted to see what would happen if I went to Startup
Disk. So I did. I see myDrive (running 9.2.2). I see Bondi, the
partition (running 9.2.1). I see Graphite (running 10.4.1). Why the
difference in the OS 9 versions? I just copied from one to the
other? I selected the Bondi (9.2.1) as the new Startup Disk. I know,
I know... it's a USB drive and it won't work. But it did. Why?
Here's the crazy thing. After I got back into Startup Disk, I changed
the startup disk back to the original myDrive (the internal hard
drive). After I rebooted, it still booted from the USB drive!! I
shut the system down. Disconnected the USB drive and powered back
on. Oh, that's nice... Look at the little OS 9 folder with a
blinking ?... Oh, now it's a folder with the Two Faces In One logo.
The Bondi refused to boot. Option+Power On didn't do anything. As a
last resort, I decided to try resetting the PRAM. I didn't even have
to look up the keystroke. I've seen it posted so many times in the
group lately. I reset the PRAM and the Bondi booted from it's
original internal hard drive. "That was a close one," I thought.
Then I thought, "Let's see if I can screw up my Graphite." I carried
the external drive rig back to the Graphite machine. Hooked it all
up, saw the partitions show up on the desktop. Remembering back to
something Dan had posted (in response to one of my questions about
multiple OS versions) I thought I'd give it a try. I opened the Bondi
backup partition which now contained a copy of 9.2.1 (???) and dragged
the icons onto the Graphite's internal hard drive (also named
myDrive). (Again, I'm pretty sure I tried to 'bless' the System
Folder.) Went to System Preferences to see if the Classic option
showed up. Nope. When to Startup Disk and chose the new OS 9 System
Folder as the startup disk (not the one from the USB drive.) With the
USB drive attached, Restarted. Hmm... Doesn't boot. Instead I get
the OS 9-style folder blinking ? and two faces logo. I wait.
Nothing. I disconnect the USB drive. Nothing. I reconnect the USB
drive. Nothing. I wait. I press Option to get the list of bootable
devices/partitions. The only thing listed is the OS 9 on myDrive (the
internal). It doesn't show OS X. I click the right arrow icon to
boot the OS 9 and am brought right back to the blinking ? Nothing.
Disconnect the USB drive and reboot. Same results. Nothing. I
wait. I wait longer. I wait an hour. Still a blinking ?. As a last
resort, I reset the PRAM. It gives me the second power on chime. I
continue to hold the keystroke down and get a third chime for good
measure. Same results. Blinking folder.
Could I be seeing what I'm seeing because the OS 9 Drivers are
installed but the System Folder wasn't 'blessed'? I'm kinda running
out of ideas. Does anyone have any? Thanks in advance. For those of
you who fell asleep reading this, I'm sorry.
Lonnie.
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